Build a Business Continuity Plan Cyber Security Strategy

For IT managers in Brisbane’s financial services sector, the risk of sudden cyber disruption is more real than ever. Protecting your firm means understanding both your current vulnerabilities and the targeted threats facing the Australian financial industry. By focusing on a robust business continuity plan, you’ll gain practical strategies to strengthen your defences and support operational resilience against cyber incidents.

Table of Contents

• Step 1: Assess Existing Cyber Security Risks
• Step 2: Design Business Continuity Procedures
• Step 3: Implement Protective Technologies
• Step 4: Test And Validate Continuity Strategies

Quick Summary

Step 1: Assess existing cyber security risks

Before you can protect your financial services firm, you need to understand what you’re protecting against. This step involves mapping your current cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and overall risk profile so you can make informed decisions about where to invest your continuity efforts.

Start by identifying your critical assets and systems. In financial services, this typically includes customer data repositories, payment processing systems, accounting software, email servers, and any cloud-based platforms you rely on. List everything that would disrupt operations or expose sensitive information if compromised.

Next, understand the threats targeting your industry. Financial services firms face specific attack vectors: ransomware targeting payment systems, phishing campaigns aimed at staff, credential theft, and regulatory-focused breaches. Threat-based cyber risk management involves identifying these threats within your unique operational context, not just applying generic solutions.

Here’s a summary of common cyber threats and their typical impacts on financial services operations:

Conduct a vulnerability assessment across your systems. This means:

• Testing network security for weak access points
• Checking for outdated software versions and unpatched systems
• Reviewing user access permissions and inactive accounts
• Assessing physical security controls in your Brisbane office
• Evaluating your backup systems and disaster recovery readiness

You should also audit your current security controls. Document what’s already in place: firewalls, multi-factor authentication, encryption, employee training programmes, and incident response procedures. This baseline shows what’s working and what needs attention.

Engage your team in this assessment. Your staff interact with systems daily and often spot vulnerabilities that technical scans miss. They’ll also reveal gaps in security awareness that could undermine your continuity plan.

Understand your actual risk profile before building defences around assumptions. Australian Government entities demonstrate this through governance mechanisms to assess their cyber risk profiles, allowing them to prioritise resources effectively.

Document everything in a risk register. List each identified risk, its potential impact on business continuity, likelihood of occurrence, and current controls. This becomes your reference point as you develop protective strategies.

Pro tip:Focus your initial assessment on the systems that would cause the most operational damage if unavailable. For a financial services firm, payment processing downtime costs far more than email downtime, so prioritise accordingly when allocating resources.

Step 2: Design business continuity procedures

Now that you understand your risks, you need to build the procedures that keep your financial services firm operational when cyber incidents strike. This step transforms your risk assessment into actionable workflows that staff can follow under pressure.

Start by defining your recovery priorities. Identify which business functions must resume first after a cyber incident. For financial services, this typically means payment processing, customer account access, and regulatory reporting systems. Not everything needs to come back simultaneously, so sequencing matters.

The table below compares recovery priorities for typical financial services functions:

Assign clear roles and responsibilities before a crisis occurs. Designate a continuity coordinator, incident response lead, communications officer, and technical recovery team lead. Document exactly what each person does during an incident, who reports to whom, and how decisions get made. Ambiguity during an actual cyber attack costs time you cannot afford to waste.

Develop step-by-step recovery procedures for each critical function. These should specify:

• How to detect that a system is compromised or unavailable
• Who to notify and through what communication channels
• What manual workarounds exist if systems remain offline
• How to restore systems from backups or alternative infrastructure
• How to validate that restored systems work correctly
• When to declare normal operations resumed

Create detailed data recovery procedures that document your backup systems, restoration timeframes, and verification steps. Cyber threat response procedures should integrate tightly with your continuity plan so incident response and business recovery happen in parallel, not sequentially.

Establish communication protocols for internal teams and external stakeholders. During a cyber incident, people need clear messaging about status, expected recovery time, and what customers should do. Build message templates for different scenarios so you communicate faster.

Define your backup and failover systems explicitly. Where are your backups stored? How often are they tested? Can you access them if your primary systems are locked by ransomware? Document the technical details and access procedures.

Effective business continuity procedures must be tested regularly and updated annually to remain relevant as your business evolves. Testing reveals gaps before incidents occur.

Document everything in a procedures manual that your team can access. Include contact lists, system details, step-by-step instructions, and decision trees. Make it physical and digital, since cyber incidents might limit digital access.

Professional tip:Write procedures in simple language that non-technical staff can follow. During a real incident, your accounting team might need to execute recovery steps if your IT staff are overwhelmed, so clarity over technical accuracy wins.

Step 3: Implement protective technologies

Risk assessment and procedures mean nothing without the technology to back them up. This step involves deploying the defensive tools that detect, prevent, and contain cyber threats before they can disrupt your financial services operations.

Start with the Essential Eight mitigation strategies, which form the foundation of effective cyber defence in Australia. These proven controls address the most common attack vectors and are recommended by Australian Government agencies. The Essential Eight includes application whitelisting, patching systems regularly, restricting administrative privileges, configuring Microsoft Office macro settings, implementing multi-factor authentication, and using endpoint detection tools.

Prioritise patching and updates across all systems. Cyber attackers exploit known vulnerabilities in unpatched software constantly. Establish a patch management process that identifies vulnerable software, tests patches in controlled environments, and deploys them to production systems on a regular schedule. This single control blocks a significant portion of opportunistic attacks.

Deploy multi-factor authentication on all critical systems. For financial services, this means requiring staff to verify their identity through multiple methods, not just passwords. This defence substantially reduces the risk of credential theft and unauthorised access, even if passwords are compromised.

Implement endpoint protection across all devices. Endpoint security solutions should include antivirus software, behaviour-based detection, and automated response capabilities. These tools monitor individual computers and servers for suspicious activity and can isolate infected machines automatically.

Your protective technology stack should include:

• Firewalls that filter incoming and outgoing traffic
• Email security tools that block phishing and malware
• Network monitoring to detect unusual data flows
• Backup systems with encryption and offline copies
• Data loss prevention tools that restrict sensitive data movement
• Security information and event management (SIEM) systems that aggregate logs

Configure Microsoft Office macro settings to block dangerous functionality. Many financial services firms use Excel and Word files extensively, and malicious macros are a common attack vector. Disable macros by default and require explicit user approval.

Australia’s 2023–2030 Cyber Security Strategy emphasises deploying secure-by-design technologies and scaling threat-blocking capabilities across critical systems. This national approach aligns with your business continuity priorities.

Ensure all protective technologies integrate with your incident response procedures. Technology is only effective if your team knows how to act when alerts occur. Test your security tools regularly to ensure they’re functioning and your staff understand how to respond.

Professional tip:Implement security technologies gradually and test each one thoroughly before moving to the next. Over-deploying tools simultaneously creates confusion, generates alert fatigue, and can actually reduce your security posture when staff ignore the noise.

Step 4: Test and validate continuity strategies

A plan that has never been tested is really just an untested theory. This step involves actually running exercises that simulate cyber incidents, revealing gaps in your procedures, technology, and team readiness before a real attack occurs.

Start with a tabletop exercise. Gather your key staff in a conference room and walk through a scenario step by step. A facilitator presents a cyber incident, your team discusses how they would respond, and you document what works and what doesn’t. No systems are disrupted, so the risk is low but the learning is genuine.

Progress to more realistic exercises once your team understands the basics. Simulate actual system outages by taking non-critical systems offline temporarily. This reveals whether your backup systems work, whether staff know how to access them, and whether your communication procedures function under realistic conditions.

Design exercises that test specific scenarios relevant to your firm. Run a ransomware scenario where you assume your payment processing system is encrypted. Run a data breach scenario where you assume customer data has been stolen. Run a phishing scenario where you send simulated phishing emails to staff and track who clicks malicious links.

Structure your testing programme like this:

1. Plan the exercise and define success criteria beforehand
2. Execute the scenario with participating teams
3. Document what happens, what staff do, and what fails
4. Debrief immediately afterwards while details are fresh
5. Identify gaps and assign responsibility for fixing them
6. Update your procedures based on lessons learned
7. Schedule the next exercise

The Australian Government’s National Exercise Programme conducts cyber security exercises across critical infrastructure sectors, testing and validating business continuity plans through coordinated, realistic scenarios.

Involve your entire team, not just IT staff. Your finance department needs to test manual payment processes. Your customer service team needs to test communication protocols. Your compliance officer needs to validate that your response meets regulatory requirements. Exercises reveal whether non-technical staff understand their continuity roles.

Test your backup and recovery systems explicitly. Restore a sample of backed-up data to verify it’s actually restorable. Confirm that recovery takes the timeframe you documented. Identify bottlenecks where your team waits for resources or information.

Regular testing and updates of incident response plans ensure your strategies remain fit for purpose as threats evolve and your business changes. Annual testing at minimum keeps your plan current.

Document all exercise findings in a report. What worked? What failed? What surprised you? What did staff learn? This report becomes your roadmap for improvements and demonstrates to leadership that your continuity strategy is being actively managed.

Professional tip:Run at least one full-scale exercise annually where you actually simulate system outages and measure recovery times. Tabletop exercises are valuable but don’t reveal technical bottlenecks that only appear when systems are actually down.

Strengthen Your Financial Services Cyber Security with IT Start

Building a robust business continuity plan tailored for financial services firms is a must in today’s cyber threat landscape. The challenges outlined in your strategy—from assessing cyber risks like ransomware and phishing to designing recovery procedures and implementing protective technologies—require expert guidance and proven solutions. At IT Start, we understand how critical uninterrupted payment processing, secure customer data access, and regulatory compliance are to your operations. We help Brisbane-based businesses like yours by delivering managed IT support, cloud solutions, and cybersecurity services that minimise downtime and safeguard your assets against evolving threats.

Don’t wait until a cyber incident disrupts your business. Partner with IT Start to translate your cyber risk assessment into effective, tested continuity procedures backed by advanced security technologies. Take the next step now and explore how our local team with SMB 1001 Gold certification can help you improve operational resilience and compliance. Reach out for a free consultation today at Contact IT Start and secure your financial services firm’s future. Start protecting your critical systems and restoring trust with expert guidance from IT Start. For proven strategies on incident response and endpoint protection tailored to Brisbane businesses, see our Cyber Threat Response Guide and How To Secure Endpoints.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the first step in building a Business Continuity Plan Cyber Security Strategy?

To start, assess your existing cyber security risks. Identify your critical assets and systems, and document their vulnerabilities to understand what you need to protect.

How can I identify the cyber threats my financial services firm faces?

Understand the specific threats targeting your industry, such as ransomware and phishing. Create a list of these threats to better inform your risk management and continuity strategy.

What procedures should be included in a Business Continuity Plan?

Design procedures that prioritise recovery for critical business functions. Document clear roles, responsibilities, and workflows that staff can follow during a cyber incident to minimise disruption.

How often should I test my Business Continuity Plan?

Aim to conduct at least one full-scale exercise annually. Regular testing helps identify gaps and ensures your team is prepared to handle real incidents effectively.

What technologies should I implement for cyber security?

Deploy protective technologies, including firewalls, endpoint protection, and multi-factor authentication. Ensure all systems are updated and integrated with your incident response protocols to create a robust defence.

How do I maintain and update my Business Continuity Plan?

Review and update your plan annually or whenever significant changes occur in your business. Keep your procedures current to ensure they reflect the evolving cyber threat landscape.

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